DR. HENRY'S "TINNITUS STORY"
In his teens and twenties Dr. Henry played guitar in rock bands. He remembers often lying in bed after a performance and noticing the "roar" in his ears. He didn't think much of it, but performing became more and more uncomfortable-the loudness of the music was beginning to hurt. He started stuffing wet toilet paper in his ears to block the sound (he knew nothing about earplugs). The roaring in his ears didn't quit-he had tinnitus.

After playing music he worked as a carpenter. So he went from one loud occupation to another. Every day he was exposed to hammering, power tools, and all forms of loud machines. He had no idea what he was doing to his ears. Eventually he started wearing earplugs, but it was too little, too late. His tinnitus was persistent.
AN INSPIRATIONAL SHIFT
After four years of carpentry, he decided to go back to school to become a clinical audiologist. (His daughter Erin, who is deaf, was the impetus to study audiology.) Following school, he was hired at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Portland, Oregon where he became a research audiologist. Working in that lab inspired him to go back to school to earn a doctorate so that he could conduct his own research. He enrolled in the behavioral neuroscience program at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) where he would spend the next six years as a full-time student while working half-time in the auditory research lab at the VA.
A PASSION IGNITED
Part of his doctoral program was doing lab work at the OHSU Oregon Hearing Research Center, which housed the OHSU Tinnitus Clinic-the first comprehensive tinnitus clinic in the world (founded and directed by Dr. Jack Vernon). His passion to study tinnitus was ignited and when he went back to working full time in 1994 at the VA auditory research lab, he started writing grants to study different aspects of tinnitus.

In the subsequent years, he was the principal or co-principal investigator for 43 funded research grants and projects, with total funding of 28 million dollars. He has authored or coauthored 246 (and counting) publications, including 138 published in scientific peer-reviewed journals, and seven tinnitus-related books. He has given hundreds of lectures and presentations nationally and internationally.

A LIFELONG CONTRIBUTOR
Dr. Henry studied methods of tinnitus evaluation and treatment that would be used in a clinical setting. He has always been concerned about the lack of standards for tinnitus clinical services, and one of his overall objectives was to provide evidence for how to conduct a tinnitus clinical assessment and to perform effective treatment for bothersome tinnitus. He retired in September, 2022 and he continues to be passionate about sharing what he knows about tinnitus, via books, lectures, and consultation.